A Major League Soccer team finally came away with a clean sheet facing Lionel Messi on Wednesday, July 16, and the result officially set a new record for the Inter Miami star that will be tough for anyone else to break.
Messi didn’t score a goal when Inter Miami suffered a 3-0 loss to FC Cincinnati, snapping his record-shattering streak of five-straight games in which he scored multiple goals facing MLS competition. The MLS record was three games. It was the first time in nearly two months that Messi had been held without a goal facing an MLS opponent, a span of seven games.
Messi was limited to one goal over four games when Inter Miami played into the Round of 16 at the FIFA Club World Cup last month. The former Barcelona star, who led Argentina to the 2022 World Cup trophy, has 16 goals and 7 assists over 17 appearances with Inter Miami in 2025.
FC Cincinnati’s Evander had two goals in Wednesday’s win over Inter Miami, which kept Messi’s team in fifth place in the MLS Eastern Conference standings with an 11-4-5 record and 38 points. Cincinnati kept the ball away from Messi early, limiting him to only a couple chances before halftime. Messi registered five shots overall and two shots on target for the match, including one in stoppage time from about 20 yards out that was stopped by the Cincinnati goalkeeper.
This was Messi’s fourth MLS game in less than two weeks and his eighth match in 33 days for Inter Miami. Miami head coach Javier Mascherano said on Saturday, July 12 after Inter Miami’s 2-1 win over Nashville that Messi will likely sit out a game at some point soon due to the team’s compressed schedule.
‘There are not many words,’ Mascherano told reporters last Saturday about Messi’s recent stretch of performances. ‘It is incredible what he continues to do, breaking records every three days … it is what I have said a thousand times in this room he is the flag of our team, the one who shows us the way how to compete, he is the leader the one who obviously encourages his teammates, shows them how we have to continue and above all maintain at this moment the tone that we have been having and well. ‘The reality is that it is a blessing to be able to accompany him at this stage of his career.’
Inter Miami is next scheduled to play Saturday, July 19 when it faces the New York Red Bulls at Sports Illustrated Stadium in Harrison, New Jersey in MLS action.